Ricoh acquires PENTAX and strengthens its digital camera business

Today, it was announced that Ricoh will purchase PENTAX. Currently PENTAX is being developed as part of HOYA's business, but it is said that it is an acquisition of PENTAX imaging system business rather than acquiring HOYA, Ricoh will be digital camera products and so on, HOYA will be an endoscope It seems that they will use the PENTAX brand respectively.

About Ricoh's acquisition agreement of HOYA's PENTAX Imaging System business / News Release | Ricoh



Although Ricoh has a strong image of copier / multifunction machine manufacturers, we originally produced cameras since the foundation in 1936, released digital cameras as early as 1995, and currently releasing high-end compact cameras.

As of March 31, 2008, HOYA absorbed Pentax and developed the PENTAX Imaging System business, but in order to tackle the selection and concentration of management resources, Hoya agreed to transfer the business to Ricoh this time And that. Hoya will continue to develop businesses of digital camera modules, DVD pickup lenses, endoscopes, artificial bones, and speech synthesis software other than the PENTAX imaging system business.

Although the digital camera market is still short history and possesses the possibility of technological innovation and evolution, the competitive environment of the market is severe, Ricoh said he was exploring growth opportunities. Ricoh has long been a challenge to establish a consumer business, and it seems that we will be proceeding with offering product services focused on consumers through this acquisition.

In the future, we will strengthen our business with lens interchangeable cameras (line-up and lens group expansion) and consider entering the image and archiving business using digital camera.